Blood
by Katianna
Summary: It's funny how you don't notice how much it hurts until you see the blood... (updated even though I said I wouldn't)
1. The Blood

Blood

By Katianna

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It's funny how you don't notice how much it hurts until you see the blood...

"Shalimar, we have to go. The building's coming down around our ears, the reactor's going to blow!" Emma looked around, spotting Shalimar pulling herself off the floor. "Are you OK?"

"Go, I'm right behind you." Emma spins and follows the others out to the double helix. She trusts Shalimar, she knows what she's doing. She doesn't look back. Shalimar takes a step, followed by another. Then she falls, wondering how forward had become down as she examines the ground for a moment. 'Just a little loss of balance' she tells herself. 'I'm just a little dizzy.' But balance is as much part of her as the fight, the hunt, the predator.

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Blood is such a fickle thing. Sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's slow. Sometimes you wait for it as you dig your fingernails into your palms and wonder why it doesn't come.

The blood is black on her fingertips in the half-light caused by the movement of the building around her, making her doubt its reality. It's tacky on her fingers and she wonders who's it is. The man felled to one side of her was downed cleanly, as the one laying behind her. She had almost missed him, in warning Brennan of his own impending danger, but he lay still and unconscious on the ground now, unmoving.

But his hand, why did his hand bleed? She hadn't touched him there. Her hand unconsciously brushed at her back again as she felt something drip on her. She felt the fog descend. The pain in her back became something solid, ramming into her. Her breathing is suddenly hard and choking. She coughed for a moment, hand over her mouth, dropping back to her knees from her feet that she had regained. Her hand was red - when had that happened? She coughed a little more and saw the redness spread.

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Have you ever seen a reflection turn the wrong way? The mind dismisses it so quickly, it is impossible of course, but for that moment you watch as your reversed figure walks out of the wrong side of the mirror, stained with your own blood, and watches you for a moment, tut-tuting quietly before following your own actions once more.

She felt the pain now, the fire in her back which consumed her. Every breath a choking liquid agony. She cried out and fell from her knees. 

"Where's Shalimar?"

"She said she would be right behind me..." They watched, all three, as an explosion rocked the building, shaking the floor beneath their feet. Fire plumed, smoke poured. The building fell, brick by brick, sending smoke and dust and rubble out into the street at their feet. "She said she would be right behind me..." Too late.

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Again, sorry for the deathfic. Written way too late at night (or should that be in the morning) during another bout of insomnia. Someone said to me the other day, "You know, I think the exams are getting to you..." *Ya think?* Plz R&R.


	2. Before and after

Before the Blood 

The dawn was a heavy thing that morning, the sky full of storm and complaint but not quite heavy enough to start releasing its load. The air felt charged and the heat was oppressive. Even Adam in his air-conditioned lab felt the heat as he directed the team to a local building where it was thought the GSA were building an armoury. Three very vague e-mails had drawn Adam's curiosity and he had finally decided to send the team when a large army transport had gone missing nearby.

As the reports came back of no activity in the area he began to doubt his own suspicions. Was he being over paranoid - reading misdirection in innocent talk? The sounds of a fight reaching him over the comm. links along with Brennan's brief 'I think we've found them Adam' was enough to dismiss his self doubt. Now it was up to them once more. It was an everyday thing for them, fighting the enemy, getting to the target and finishing off what ever it was they had gone for. It was rare for them to fail nowadays, they worked so well as a team, a single unit. That they followed his leadership gave him a feeling of power that he had never experienced before, that they were so good simply made him proud.

"Emma, Jesse, the reactor's yours. I'll hold this entrance, Shalimar hold that one and we'll meet back at the helix when you're finished, just sound the signal." Brennan's quick fire instructions were rattled out as Emma and Jesse grabbed the bag full of explosive and headed down the side corridor towards the reactor that they would use to destroy the network of tunnels that they had found. Brennan shared a smile with Shalimar before leaping back into the melee on his side of the room. There were about ten guards but none of them were armed and together Brennan and Shalimar could hold them off long enough for Emma and Jesse to complete their mission and for them all to get out of the grungy underground hideout.

It didn't take much to find the reactor, it was huge. Jesse phased them both through a safety screen and into the main hanger that held the mechanism. They planted the explosives next to all of the equipment that looked vital and set the timers to give them enough time to get out. As they headed out of the room, Jesse stopped by a large pillar in the centre of the open space.

"This looks structural, what do you think?" He asked, pulling out a last explosive and timer. He set it up quickly and started hurrying towards the exit calling a move-out into his comm. link and following Emma out. 

"Brennan mind your back." Shalimar called out across the room as she saw a single fighter approach Brennan unseen. She felt a pain in her back as she span to finish off another assailant that had stepped out of nowhere, but dismissed it. The man fell as easily as the others had and no one saw the glint of metal that had been secreted in her back. It's funny how you don't notice how much it hurts until you see the blood

Emma saw Shalimar finish off a fight and glanced around to find Brennan already heading out of the door with Jesse and was surprised to see that Shalimar had disappeared.

"Shalimar we have to go"

Too Late

After the Blood 

Too Late

Her fingers dug half-moon slips into her skin as her stomach tried to rebel against the smell. They didn't hurt, it was an absent thought. Why did it not hurt. Surely she was hurting herself? She examined her palms and found a welling of blood and felt the sharp sting of the wounds. It's funny how you don't notice

She didn't want to think about what lay under the pile of rubble that had been a building. A friend but too late.

Brennan was digging in the rubble, Jesse phasing as much as he could at once to try and find her. Somehow they know that they will not find her as they had left her. 

Adam sounds pained on the comm. link. He's asking for updates. He has to know. But he wants to be there. He's coming over, he says. He can't leave them to get her out alone, they need help. She might still be alive

Too Late

Jesse cries out.

Too Late

Brennan lifts her from the phased rock.

Too Late

The knife slips from her back.

Too late

It shines on the ground beneath her. It is calling.

You will always be

Too late

Adam arrives, tears in his eyes as he takes her still form from Brennan's arms.

too

And there is no more blood.

Disclaimer - I don't own these characters or situations, they belong to Tribune Entertainment and the rest, but I do own the storyline and writing. I'm not making any money out of this writing, I do it just for fun.

AN: This belongs to Feral, Ruffyan, Mark and Thir13en ghosts. Blood was only supposed to be a single chapter deathfic, like the others I've done, but you all asked so nicely. I don't know if you like it, but you asked for more, and you got it. R&R peeps. Oh, and join Please!!


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